Category Archives: Football

Midweek Dis & Data

Baseball, Basketball, College Sports, Football, ,

I wanted to start with U of L football.

Honest, I really really did.

But just have to mention that film clip first.

You know the one. Pat Kelsey answering a question posed by ACC Network’s Wes Durham. (I think it was him.) Glorious Editor posted it in his last News & Notes. I trust that all true Cardinal fans have watched it, or at least heard about it by now.

Responding to what’s your favorite movie, PK immediately responds “Hoosiers.”

Imagine our surprise.

Then tells how a HS teammate and he watched the b-ball parts of flick every single day after practice one post season.

Then he shares that the Bobby Plump character Jimmy Chitwood netted 44 of 49 shots for Hickory High he took in the beloved film. Continue reading Midweek Dis & Data →

Phone Numbers, Pool Tables: Tales From Cardinal Pigskin Past

Football,

I know for sure you’ve never read these stories in this space, even though you might know them from elsewhere.

Because your self proclaimed not such a Louisville football expert just heard them yesterday, when I ran into an old neighbor and former member of the football staff. From the beginning of the Schnell era when hired on as a GA, through the miscalculation of Cooper, partway through the resurgence of John L..

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Let’s start with Schnell’s engagement with Mick Jagger in the summer of ’89, such as it was. (About which, to be honest, I had heard stories but not from someone who was actually in the room.)

The Stones’ Steel Wheels tour landed at Fairgrounds Stadium in September ’89.

Apparently, such was the cloud of contractual secrecy surrounding the construction of that monstrous stage, that nobody outside the entourage could view it. Even though they’d already played eight dates. Which major inconvenience, as is easy to imagine, didn’t sit well with the Pipe, since it was the middle of the football season. Continue reading Phone Numbers, Pool Tables: Tales From Cardinal Pigskin Past →

What If The GOAT Coached Cardinal Football?

College Sports, Football,

Truth in Reportage. The whole idea for this post was generated by Matt Baker’s contemplation this morning at theathletic.com. 

Which fascinating it’s-the-off-season-so-whatever-to-write-about rabbit hole boiled down to this query: Which school is the worst of the eventual best of list  — Arizona State, North Carolina, , Louisville, South Carolina, Stanford, Utah, Wisconsin — that Nick Saban could reasonably have led to a national title?

I hearken back for just a moment to my last post, where I not totally regrettably asked my readers to suggest article topics for these fallow summer months on the collegiate sports scene. Baker, and we’re far from alone, obviously is searching for stuff to keep readers interested until games kickoff in August.

It worked.

After going through a bunch of metrical data points, Baker arrived at those possible schools.

Of course, you must have realized by now, the winner is the University of Louisville Cardinals. Continue reading What If The GOAT Coached Cardinal Football? →

Thursday’s Some Ado About . . .

Baseball, Basketball, College Sports, Fandom, Football, Media, Recruiting, Sportswriting

For a short while during my LEO stint, I had a copy editor with whom I had a, shall we say, testy relationship.

Not talking about then editor Cary Stemle, a friend and fellow sports/ music obsessive who totally understood and approved my modus operandi.

I forget the fellow’s name. My breezy, verbose, culture reference-laden style was obviously an anathema for him. He was prone to the pedantic. In extremis.

Along the way, I noticed some tweaks to my submissions that were becoming more vexatious. But, in a fit of maturity, I let them go without complaint.

Then, an issue came out in which he’d put a header over my column, which read to me anyway something like, “Here’s Another Stupid Nonsensical Article About Nothing.”

Pissed, I went to Cary, who given his other duties really hadn’t paid attention before the issue was published. I specifically recall we took a meeting with the guy, and a shouting match ensued. A new sports piece I’d submitted was during football season, and I inserted the totally cool acronym AFROS, which the Cardinal receivers had dubbed themselves at the time.

*America’s Finest Receivers On Saturdays. 

The fellow, totally clueless, did not understand, did not inquire and 86ed the reference. Continue reading Thursday’s Some Ado About . . . →

The Tortuous Path of a Sports Fanatic

Baseball, Basketball, Fandom, Football

If only I could heed my admonishment to my very own self.

To wit, Chuck, you care too much, this is not healthy.

But noooooooooooooo!

Oh, the ups and downs that can determine one’s state of mind.

On Tuesday, the Cardinal nine was upended by hapless Bellarmine.

Then my Detroit Tigers were down two going into bottom of 11th against the BoSox. This, after St. X grad Trey Sweeney kept them afloat in bottom of 10 with a game-tying RBI single.

Resurgent Javy Baez hit a walk off three run tater to win the game. His second three run shot of the night.

On Wednesday, the NFL released next season’s schedule. Continue reading The Tortuous Path of a Sports Fanatic →

My Agathokakological Sports Saturday

Basketball, Fandom, Football

Though Dylanian in the elegance of its poesy and the truth of its message, the phrase comes from the intro to a TV sports show.

Wide World of Sports.

Iconic Jim McKay’s voice over the opening credits.

Who can shake the image of that ski jumper careening off the launch ramp, a Irish hurler being dropped by an errant swing. Pele’s ecstatic leap into a teammate’s arms after a big goal for Brazil?

The phrase lives Methuselahian in the lexicon of athletics.

The thrill of victory.

The agony of defeat.

My Louisville Cardinals 81, Virginia 67.

Thrill of victory.

My Detroit Lions 31, Washington 45.

Agony of defeat.

A healthy helping of both. Continue reading My Agathokakological Sports Saturday →

Monday’s Pigskin Palaver

College Sports, Football

Allow me to begin with yet another shoutout to Bronconagurskius for his beneficent ways.

I’m a worrier by nature. Most all the time I need a dump truck to unload my mind.

And Sunday, you know in my neck of the woods. Stress. Power. Cable. In addition to the usual daily stuff that plagues me while not bothering most sane folks.

But there it was beginning to end, my Detroit Lions on the telly, turning the Vikings into what my mom would call hochflesh.*

*Which essentially means something like the chicken parts she tossed after conjuring her chicken soup from scratch. Including plucking the feathers of the fresh bird. True.

Twas a glorious 31-9 evisceration, allowing the Lions a week off and home field advantage through the conference playdowns.

While DC Aaron Glenn is receiving most of the postgame acclaim — deservedly so, his plan was brilliant, genius — I want to start with Detroit GM Brad Holmes.

Who has fashioned a franchise rebuild that would put Holmes on Homes to shame.* Continue reading Monday’s Pigskin Palaver →

U of L CardFile: Sun Bowl W

Football

May the Schwartz be with you.

Yes, I know Carter Schwartz’s much needed 54 yard punt, downed by Kris Hughes at the UDub three yard line, was not the play of the game.

But, it’s bowl season, the Cards played guys we’ve never heard of, the Huskies have a dy-no-mite real rookie QB — clearly star of the game — the game was entertaining . . .

. . . and U of L won.

35-34.

After Antonio Watts made the true play of the game, breaking up Washington’s attempt for a deuce to win it in regulation.

So yeah, I went full on Space Balls. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Sun Bowl W →

Friday Noise & Nonsense

Basketball, College Sports, Football

Be still my beating heart.

My favorite Cardinal pigskinner ever, Teddy Bridgewater is joining my Detroit Lions as Jared Goff’s backup.

Let’s hope he never has to play.

Let’s hope he fashions the most unique double in the history of football. Coaching a HS state champ, getting a Super Bowl ring that same season.

Teddy B is not the only U of L connection on the Lions. Among the 19 Lions on the IR is one Jaylen Reeves-Maybin. Son of Cardinal Marques.

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Seems there’s an equivalent in the college ranks to Lions’ innovative OC Ben Johnson — the leader in the clubhouse dubbed Next Big Thing.

His name: Will Stein. Continue reading Friday Noise & Nonsense →

Tuesday Noise & Nonsense: 12/23

Football, Volleyball

I recently happened upon a truly quirky, unique, irreverent, seriously funny short series on Peacock.

“We Are Lady Parts.”

It’s about a group of young Muslim women in a punk band.

Like I said, unique.

Anyhow, in the last episode of S1, the group — Lady Parts — is playing a gig at what appears to be an industrial dump of some sort. Like I said, quirky.

Along with their usual tunes about killing their sisters, Voldemort hangin’ out under their head scarfs, they cover “We Are The Champions.”

Which brings me to this: One last tip o’ the chapeau to the U of L Volley Girlz.

The University of Louisville volleyball women are not NCAA champions.

Technically. Continue reading Tuesday Noise & Nonsense: 12/23 →